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ADDRESS 


TO THE 


PUBLIC AUTHORITIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 


by 


THE LOUISIANA 




ADOPTED JANUARY 4 , 1836 . 


NcId ©ilcnns, 

PRINTED AT THE TRUE AMERICAN OFFICE. 




1836 . 













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1 


ADDRESS. 


Sir —The ' Corresponding Secretary of the Native American 
Association of Louisiana, having been instructed l^y that body to 
confer with you, relative to the present naturalization laws of the 
United States ; in conformity with that instruction, I take the 
liberty of addressing you : 

The facility with which foreigners attain citizenship, in our 
country, is calculated, in the opinion of many citizens, to taiTiish 
the lustre of American institutions, and to deteriorate the purity of 
the elective franchise; and thus, possibly, at some future period, 
to annihilate our Republic ; for, if any political circumstance be 
permitted to exist in this land, which is calculated to diminish our 
respect for, or to render the heretofore sacred right of suffrage 
odious or contemptible in the estimation of its inhabitants, that 
circumstance, whatever it may be, is calculated to subvert or over¬ 
throw our present admirable form of government; and thus, the 
most sacred prerogative of freemen, should we j^errait its prosti¬ 
tution, instead of constituting the paladium of our liberties and 
perpetuity of our institutions, may become the engine of our po¬ 
litical dissolution. 

This subject has been brought so fairly before the inhabitants 
of our common country, not only by the prints which have advo¬ 
cated the modification of our naturalization laws, but by those 
also which have opposed it, that your attention has, doubtless, 
been awakened; and you have probably, ere this, determined on 
the course which you intend to pursue in relation to this important 
subject. The Louisiana Native American Association do not, 
therefore, entertain any idea, by this address, of enlightening your 
mind, should you have already directed your attention to the sub¬ 
ject ; blit, it is within the compass of possibility, amid the many 
other engrossing duties of your high station, that you may not 
have considered the subject of as much importance as it is con¬ 
ceived, by many citizens, to be; and you may, therefore, be 
possibly induced, by this communication, to afford it your attention 
during the 'present session of congress. 

Whether you agree with us, sir, in those views of the subject 
which we hereby take the liberty of presenting, or not, no possible 
harm can arise from the free intercommunion of the citizens of 
one portion of our beloved country with another, no matter how 
remote. Our object is the same—the general good ; and whether 



4 


we agree in opinion as to the best method of promoting this or 
not, still we cannot, as Americans, confer too often, or too freely, on 
the best means of preserving and perpetuating our admirable 
institutions, in their original j)urity, to the latest posterity. 

Patriotism, love of country, therefore, will dictate the course 
you, sir, will pursue, as it does ours; and whether we differ or 
agree as to the best mode of exercising and rendering it useful, 
still, our object and end are' the same,—our country's good—her 
nappiness and prosperity. 

The first question which naturally addresses itself to the mind 
of every American, when reflecting on this subject, is the foliow'- 
ing :—Will such a modification of our naturalization laws noii\ as 
will diminish the facility by which foreigners attain all the rights, 
immunities and privileges of citizenship, reflect a shadow of 
ingratitude upon the hitherto stainless memories of our venerated 
forefathers, by their descencla7its, at this period, ceasing to fulfil the 
obligations which they incurred when they made this land an 
asylum for the oppressed of every nation, guaranteeing to them, 
under certain conditions, and after a certain probation, equal 
rights, immunities and privileges, with the native born children of 
the soil. 

Can foreigners justly say, hereafter, “ the patriarchs of the 
American revolution,” in order to gain foreign aid and assistance 
to fight thpir battles and build up their present great and flourish¬ 
ing nation, entered into obligations with all foreigners who should 
come among them, and submit to their prob^itionary provisions; 
but they have deceived us; for their ungrateful and degenerate 
posterity have proved recreant to the engagements of their ancest. 
tors, by basely refusing to fulfil the obligations which their fathem 
voluntarily incurred. 

If such a pharge can be justly made against us, and by implica¬ 
tion against ^he memories of our revered forefathers, then, the 
undertaking which this communication is intended to promote, 
should perish still-bor;i, and be copsigned to everlasting oblivion ! 
But we respectfully copceive that no such charge can ever be 
justly raised against us, or reflectively against the sacred memories 
of our fathers, as we will endeavor to demonstrate. 

At the time the sages of the American revolution projected the 
wise, happy and indulgent government under which we live, they 
did so under circumstances of great a,nd unprecedented peril; and 
every foreigner, who was willing to cast in his lot with them, had 
to jeopardize, in common with our fathers, his life, his fortune and 
his sacred honor. This extraordinary hazard justly entitled 
every foreigner, who incurred it, to every right, privilege and 
immunity which our country could bestow upon them ; and they 
have received thein in fruition, and their descendants are now no 
longer adopted citizens, but the native children of the soil, and the 
legitimate inheritors of every blessing secured to our happy land, 
by the struggles, perils and privations of our revolutionary fore¬ 
fathers. 


5 


i^ven after the revolutionary war liad terminated, the perpetuity 
and practicability of our republic on so gigantic a scale as was 
tiecessarily contemplated in prospective, was considered in a great 
degree problematical. It was, indeed, an experiment* and all 
foreigners who came amongst us, hazarded all their future hopes 
and prospects upon its success; and, inasmuch as thoy had periled 
their all upon the successful result of the experiment, they also 
were entitled to all the rights, immunities and privileges of the 
native bom inhabitants of the soil. These they have possessed, 
and their children, and children’s children will continue to enjoy 
them to the latest posterity. ^ 

Not only have foreigners, who aided our fathers in their revo¬ 
lutionary exertions, and those who contributed to build up the 
incipient greatness of our country, but all other foreigners, without 
distinction, who, during the last half century have fled for refuge 
from transatlantic desj)otism to this happy land, have enjoyed the 
same rights, immunities and privileges also; and almost every 
office in our country, from the highest to the lowest, has been 
filled by naturalized foreigners, indiscriminately, as by native 
born citizens. 

The engagements of our fathers with foreigners, have, there¬ 
fore, been fulfilled by them and their descendants, to the letter, 
with a large balance of favor extended to them gi'atuitously. The 
pledges which our fathers gave to foreigners have, therefore, been 
amply redeemed, and they stand as ever, spotless and immaculate, 
and no reflection can ever be justly cast upon their memories, if 
we, their descendants, deeming it advisable, think it our duty, for 
the safety of our country and her institutions, at this period of 
time, to change the naturalization law's for future genera¬ 
tions. 

Now, when the permanency of our republican institutions is 
established upon a firm and immutable basis ; when our country’s 
magnificent destinies are beginning to be fulfilled ; when our 
power is acknowledged throughout the universe ; when we have 
nothing to apprehend from a comparison with any nation in the 
world ; when, even, our national debt is extinct, and, surplus 
revenue to an immense amount is hourly accumulating in our 
national treasury, and tee (unlike European nations) require the 
aid of no foreign Rothschilds to enable us to resent the aggressions 
or humble the aiTogance p)f any external enemy who may incur 
our resentment, by unwaiTantable acts—wdien so abiding is the 
attachment to our institutions throughout this hemisphere, that 
every internal enemy w'hich has arisen to agitate the elements of 
our holy union, has been laughed to scorn by the united voices of 
thp whole nation. 

Can foreigners, then, w'ho emigrate to this land, under these 
2')ropitious circumstances, not to encounter perils, but to reap the 
rich reward of revolutionary sufferings—can those who noio come 
but to bask in the bright beams of national contentment, happiness 
and prosperity—who are permitted to reap in peace and security,- 


6 


tlie rich harvest which our fathers sowed in anguish, toil and blood 
—to enjoy the fruits of our indulgent, institutions, and to “ sit 
under their own vine and fig tree, with none to make them afraid.” 
—Can such as these be permitted to demand equal rights, immu¬ 
nities and privileges, or to accuse America, if she refuse to gi'ant, 
to future emigrants, the same easy terms of citizenship which were 
permitted to those who hurried from other lands to water with 
their blood, the tree of American liberty; or, who periled their 
all in the defence or support of our country, when beset with every 
danger and surrounded and encumbered by external and internal 
enemies % No, it cannot be ! Justice forbids it—patriotism forbids 
it!—It is, indeed, setting too low an estimate upon the blessings 
which the inexpressible sufferings and privations of our revolu¬ 
tionary fathers have achieved for us, to render them accessible on 
such easy conditions, to every foreigner who will condescend to 
accept them. 

Depend U23on it, sir, the sacredness with which we surround 
our political privileges, and the greater difficulties foreigners 
experience in obtaining access to them, the higher estimate they 
will set upon them, and the more deeply they will reverence, and 
the more devotedly they will protect them, whenever they do 
succed in attaining them. 

Your high position in our country, sir, with the enlarged expe¬ 
rience which it presupposes, forbids our offering any illustrative de¬ 
monstrations of the universality of that principle in the human mind, 
that, “what costs no exertion to obtain, is considered of no value.” 

If, then, we have been sufficiently fortunate to establish the 
justice of a change of our naturalization laws, at this period, both 
as regards ourselves and the obligations of our revolutionary an¬ 
cestors, the next duty which devolves upon us is, to endeavor to 
demonstrate the necessity of such a proceeding for the future 
^security of our institutions. 

It cannot be denied, that almost all foreigners in the United 
States, whether they have undergone the forms of our present 
naturalization laws or not; are, nevertheless, influenced, in all 
^heir political acts by a species of esprit d^i corps^ by which an 
.uniformity of action is established amongst them all. This might 
not be considered an objectionable circumstance, if it arose from 
patriotic motives, or from an universal love, on their for our 

institutions; but, %cnfortunately, it is bound up too much with 
transatlantic 2 >redilections and reminiscences. For let but a foreigner 
be named as a candidate for any office, and he is secure of the 
entire foreign vote. This has long lieen well known ; or let any 
American be shrewd enough to work upon the prejudices of the 
leaders of the foreign party throughout the United States, and 
obtain their support, ami so sure as a herd of sheep will follow its 
helwethcr, just so sure is he of obtaining almost the entire foreign 
yote. 

'Assuredly, if naturalized citizens generally reasoned on the na¬ 
ture of our electoral privileges, and the same lights and shadows of 


political action impelled them, by which the native born citizens 
of the United States are influenced, they could not all think alike 
on any one subject. The same dissimilarity of opinions must ne¬ 
cessarily arise amongst them, as amongst us, native born; and they 
could not as they do, act “ en masse'' on every political subject. 

The legitimate inference from this fact is, that naturalized citi¬ 
zens do not, as we do, reason on the probable result of any politi¬ 
cal operation. They (with few exceptions) follow, blindly, the 
mandates of their leaders, without reference to the consequences, 
good or bad, of any political movement in which they may partici¬ 
pate. 

If the truth of this position be admitted, it is anti-American, and 
strikes deeply at the purity and permanency of our present popular 
form of government. For if three millions of foreigners uniformly 
act in concert, and as we have reason to believe at the instigation of 
their leaders, what would be requisite in order to overthrow our 
goveniment, but to corrupt those leaders, and thus place the 
entire naturalized party at the feet of some future demagogue. 

These remarks are by no means intended to give oflence—they 
are not retrospective, but prospective. We do not pretend to inti¬ 
mate that naturalized citizens have ever yet violated their oaths 
of allegiance, or been guilty of treasonable practices or feelings 
towards the United States ; but we maintain, that if one of the 
avowed leading foreign presses in the United States, say the 
Truth Teller^ or Irishman, of New York, were to advocate any 
man for office, be he who he may, or any measure or piinciple, 
however heterodox or anti-American, that the opinion or principle 
advocated by such a paper, would be endorsed by 7 ime out of every 
ten foreign born citizens throughout the United States. Acting 
thus in concert, they present a foreign party, of three millions of 
individuals, affiliated and disciplined, and ready to follow their 
leaders, either to build up or hew down the sacred ramparts of the 
constitution. Moving thus, in solid phalanx, they present to the 
dissentient and deliberative mass of the American community, 
influenced as it is by diversified interests, opinions and preposses¬ 
sions, the attitude of a solid column of well appointed and dis¬ 
ciplined veteran troops, ready at a moments warning for action, 
when arrayed against unarmed, undisciplined and unsuspecting 
citizens. And when the facilities for emigintion, from Europe to 
America, which are now contemplated, shall have been completed, 
God only knows, unless our naturalization laws be amended, 
where this perilous power in the hands of naturalized citizens will 
terminate, or how long they will permit our sacred—our blood 
bought institutions to endure. 

If then, sir, it be admitted that under the present naturalization 
laws, naturalized citizens possess a power which may hereafter 
become dangerous to our institutions, what remedy can be de¬ 
vised to prevent the evil? We conceive that an extension or 
elongation of the period at which foreigners can obtain the rights 


8 


A 

of citizenship will be effectual; dating the period of their admission 
as American citizens, twenty-one from the time of their giving 

notice of their intention so to do; and rendering them inadmissible, 
without going through the same formalities again, should they 
spend more than twelve months of the Uventy-one years out of the 
United States. 

Such a law might, at first vievv% appear harsh and severe, but we 
conceive that it would be just, should it pass this session of congress, 
and take effect on the 1st of January, 1837, so as to afford an 
opportunity for all the Avorld to become acquainted with the ex¬ 
istence of such a law, that no foreigner might be enabled to say, 
hereafter, I left my country hoodwinked; believing from their 
promulgated laws, that I should have to expend but five years in 
obtaining the rights of an American citizen, but I have been en¬ 
trapped and imposed upon by the American government. 

The principles upon which we have taken the liberty of specify-' 
ing the number of years, twenty-one, are simply the following: 
The laws of the land require that twenty-one years of a native 
American’s life shall have been expended ere he is entitled to the 
electoral prerogatives of citizenship, and we respectfully conceive 
^ that it requires quite as long a time for a foreigner born, to divest 
himself of all his foreign prejudices, predilections and predisposi¬ 
tions, and become perfectly assimilated with us in political feelings, 
sympathies and antipathies, as it does to rear up an American 
born citizen from birth to manhood; indeed, we conscientiously 
believe that the allotted life of man, three score and ten years resi¬ 
dence of a foreigner born, who aiTives after maturity in the United 
States, are inadequate to render him thoroughly, in American 
principles, one of us. He will still retain his lingering foreign 
reminiscences,—^lie will still grasp ’a foreigner by the hand with 
more enthusiastic warmth, and he will open his purse with more 
cordiality to relieve the wants and necessities of a suffering 
foreigner, than of a native American citizen. These assertions can 
not be controverted ; a glance at the only individuals employed in 
all the commercial, mechanical or agricultural establishments 
throughout the United States, which are owned by naturalized 
citizens, is sufficient to establish their truth. 

Again, in relation to the necessity of an alteration and extension 
of the period of naturalization, a striking inconsistency may occur, 
where a foreigner born, who has been in the United States but 
nine years, may be elected United States Senator, while a native 
born American citizen, who has been twenty-nine years a resident# 
would be ineligible to the office. 

The very fact of a more advanced age being necessary to render 
a man eligible to certain offices in the United States, is proof 
positive that mere maturity was not considered a guarantee of 
thorough acquaintance with our institutions, but that additional 
pie-requisites, additional intimacy with the nature of our govern¬ 
ment, and additional wisdom were necessary to qualify a man for 
such important and responsible offices^ 


9 


Can a foreigner then abandon all his prejudicr’S of education, and 
acquire such a knowledge of our country, and such a veneration 
for her principles and institutions, as to become worthy to hold 
a seat in the senate of the United States, in nine years; and if a 
solitary doubt of his ability to do so exist, let it not be urged in 
answer to this remonstrance, that no foreigner could obtain suffi¬ 
cient influence in nine years to be elected to the senate of the 
United States. Is it wise, is it consistent in our rulers to create 
or permit the continuance of legislative provisions under the mere 
casual hope or vague anticipation that they n^ay never be acted 
uj)on 1 

Another striking iiiconsisteney may arise under the present 
naturalization laws, where a foreigner may arrive in the United 
States, remain there a single Iioui-, return to Europe and continue 
there seven years, when he may return to the United States, become 
in an hour a citizen, and the next day be elected to congress; 
while a native born citizen of the United States, who has been 
cradled in the very lap of loyalty, a nd reared up and imbued with 
devotion to our country, and with every fibre of whose heart has 
been entwined the sacred principles of patriotism; and, yet, this 
native American who has been twenty-four years a resident of the 
United States, is ineligible to an office, which may be filled by a 
foreigner who has not spent three consecutive hours on our soil. 

Is it any wonder, with these partialities staring foreigners in 
the face, that they are opposed to any change in our naturalization 
laws, and that they have menaced with personal violence—tar and 
feathers, those native American citizens who have united together 
for the jmrpose of awakening the attj^ntion of the American com¬ 
munity, in order that this glaring injustice towards native Ameri¬ 
cans may be expunged from the statutes of the land % 

The Americans are naturally a benevolent and unsuspecting 
people. Indulgently, and without giving a thought to the matter, 
they have permitted foreigners not only to enjoy all the rights and 
privileges of our land, as citizens, but they have indiscreetly 
allowed them to affiliate and form secret societies, (for their 
societies are inaccessible to all but foreigners or their descendants, 
whom they suppose to be imbued with the same sentiments and 
predilections by which their ancestors are influenced) and not 
only have foreigners been permitted to form secret societies, the 
acts and proceedings of which are unknown to native Americans, 
by which societies and the foreignized prints growing out of them, 
they are enabled to pass the signal for united action, and to move 
simultaneously in any political o})eration, from one end of the 
United States to the other; but they (foreigners) have been per¬ 
mitted to proceed so far as to organize bands of foreign soldiery, 
armed and equipped, and bearing a foreign name, and commanded 
in a foreign language, to mingle on equal terms ^vith tlie native 
American troops of the United States. The existence of these 
foreign societies and foreign volunteer companies, keeps up a 
foreign tone of feeling in our land, and prevents identity and 


10 


liumogciiity of cliuracter aiiK^iig the population of tht‘ United 
States, and tlicy should lx.' prohibited. 

When an Hibernian, or French, or German society, {on t/ie 
day of its foreign gatron saint) celebrates its annual fete, are 
the hallowed objects of American love and reverence the subjects 
r f their adoration !? No! All their reminiscences emanate from 
the fader laruV —and all their aspirations are directed by love 
for the people, and “ the land they come from.” 

It is the opinion of many honest politicians that a change in our 
naturalization laws would prevent emigration to this country.— 
We, sir, respectfully conceive that this is an erroneous opinion. 
It is not to benefit our country tliat foreigners come amongst us, 
but to accommodate themselve; and our rulers are bound to 
legislate, not for the convenience and gratification of foreigners, 
but for the safety, happiness, and prosperity of the United States. 
Under the existing naturalization laws, foreigners are on their 
arrival, induced to congi’egate in cities, and to support and sustain 
one another in order that they may form a party sufficiently im¬ 
posing to give, if possible, a foreign tone to the community, and to 
fill evei'y office to which their aggregate power can succeed in 
elevating them,—their greater flexibility of character enables 
them to stoop to solicit for office and support where an American 
cannot and will not condescend; and thus by mutual support, 
they are thrust into almost all our subordinate offices, to the exclu¬ 
sion of native bom American citizens, and better men. And from 
their never expending a single dollar with an American, when 
they can possibly throw it into the hands of a foreigner, which 
exclusion an American never thinks of,—wealth is thus heaped 
upon them, and they acquire the power which w’ealth gives ; and 
a species of foreign monied aristocracy exists, and has acquired 
high and dangerous powers throughout our land. 

Were the naturalization laws changed, in the manner we have 
respectfully suggested, no temptation would exist to retain them 
in the neighborhood of large cities, for political pui*poses ; but 
they would be peimitted, by their foreign master spirits, to dis¬ 
seminate themselves throughout our wide spread country, there to 
level the forest and make the wilderness to blossom as the rose— 
to become the pioneers in improvement, and to rear up a race of 
native American yeomanry to add to the strength and glory of our 
common country. 

If it could even be substantiated that a change of the present 
naturalization Taws would prevent emigration to this country, we 
respectfully conceive that such a circumstance should not prevent 
it. It is better for our country’s population to increase firmly, 
soundly and radically, although slowdy, than by a too rapid, badly 
digested, and excrescent grow'th, to become prematurely infirm 
and unsubstantial. 

To compare small things with great—communities with indi¬ 
viduals (and the comparison is logical and just)—the youth who 
attains, by a too rapid growth, the stature of a man prematurely. 


11 


grows up slender, infirm, feelde, diseased and rickety ,—vcrhuni 
mt. Let not such be the condition of our country from her rapid 
accumulation of an incongruous, incompatible population, with 
premature powers to interfere witli her government and institu¬ 
tions. Better that our country should be ten thousand years 
acquiring her promised stature of collossal manhood, than that by 
a morbidly rapid growth, she acquire premature old age—and 
decay and dissolve without fulfilling her high and important des¬ 
tinies. We owe to our posterity, an exemption from the evils 
with which they are threatened by foreign influence, and every 
succeeding generation which permits the naturalization laws to 
continue as they exist at present, is setting one more precedent, 
which aided by the daily increasing powders of foreigners, will 
render the struggle more severe, and the accomplishment more 
difficult when it shall be (for it eventually must be) attempted. 
The probability is, from the spirit which we see abroad in our land, 
that when, hereafter, a change in the naturalization laws shall be 
attempted by our descendants, that revolution and civil war may 
be the result, and possibly the overthrow of our goveniment. Let 
us not then leave such a root of bitterness in our laws and institu¬ 
tions as may grow up into a moral and political Bohon Upas, quali¬ 
fied to poison and annihilate the whole. 

We might add on this part of the subject, the remark, that native 
bom Americans, who have been twenty-one years in the United 
States, are certainly better qualified to judge as to the proper 
persons who are to represent them in office, than foreigners who 
have been but five years in the United States. And can Americans 
not be permitted to differ conscientiously on political subjects, 
without apprehending that a trained band of foreigners will step in 
between them, (as is frequently the case in our large cities) and 
by dint of discipline and physical exertion, defeat both parties and 
carry off the prize ? 

If America is always capable of furnishing a suitable person for 
president, surely she is capable of furnishing men adequate to fill 
every inferior station in our country. And it really appears as if 
the election and employment of foreign bom citizens to the various 
offices of our country, to the exclusion of native Americans, is a 
tacit but bitter reflection upon the native born children of the soil, 
and should be discountenanced. 

If we have (as recent circumstances seem to indicate) reason to 
feel anxiety for the security of our country from anarchy and mob 
law amongst ourselves; what have we not to apprehend from 
masses of turbulent foreigners, whose whole life has been a series of 
resistance to the laws which governed them, and in whom the spirit 
of sedition and insubordination is so confirmed, that they cannot 
submit to the sacred obligations of law, or be content with the 
degree of rational freedom, comprised in the word American 
liberty. Indeed, is there not reason to believe that the frequency 
of Lynch or mob law, recently in the United States, is the result of 
a foreign, tumultuary spirit growing up and acquiring strength 
tliroughout our country. 


12 


If tliere be a subject on which all native Americans ought to 
unite in one opinion, (and you will find, sii', that ALL foreigners, 
whether naturalized or not, have long since united to oppose it) it 
is this one, viz ; a change of the naturalization law, in which all 
are equally interested, the perpetuity of our institutions and the 
happiness of our posterity, possibly deijending iqoon its accom¬ 
plishment. 

So far from diminishing the happiness or prosperity of foreigners, 
a change of the naturalization laws would secure them from being 
made the instruments of wily demagogues before they understood 
the nature and spirit of our institutions,—it would not curtail the 
enjoyments of those who were already naturalized, nor prohibit 
those who were not from any actual benefit or real enjoyment. It 
would establish an identity of American character which does not 
now exist. 

It would amalgamate native Americans and naturalized citizens 
more closely, and establish a firmer bond of union between them, 
by isolating them from the rest of the world, and the name of 
foreigner (as a term of reproach) would be done away forever in 
this land. It is the rapidity with which foreigners acquire a right 
to interfere with our institutions and government, that is the sole 
and only cause of strifb between them and native Americans; 
remove that stumbling block, that rock of ofience, and unkindness 
will cease. And a single generation will make the descendants of 
all foreigners, native American citizens. 

We will now terminate our long communication; nothing but 
our sincere conviction of the importance of the subject would have 
induced us to dictate it. In closing, we beg leave to call your 
attention to one dreadful commentary on the premature admission 
of foreigners into the rights and privileges of the American people, 
and the occupation of American offices, and their lingering attach¬ 
ments to a foreign land. General Bernard, who has long filled 
the distinguished office of chief-engineer of the United States, is 
no sooner beckoned to by a royal finger, than he hastens to throw 
up his commission and fly to foreign service. Ho is now aid de 
camp to the king of the French, Louis Philippe; with probably the 
original draughts, of the principal part of our fortifications, and a 
perfect and familiar knowledge of every vulnerable point in the 
United States ; and should he be commanded by his royal master,- 
to aid or accompany an invading army to the United States, he 
must either prove disloyal to his king and country, or initiate them 
into those state secrets of our country, with which his indiscreet 
and unwarrantable appointment has invested him. 

With the sincere hope, sir, that the imperfect suggestions con¬ 
tained above may prove beneficial to my country, and with the 
most ardent wishes for your health and happiness. 

I remain, sir, respectfully. 

Your obedient humble servant, 

J. S. MTARLANE, 
Corresponding Secretary of the Louisiana 
Native American Association. 




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